It is a problem with SQLTABLE, detail tables is pure SQLTABLE, SOme people identified a bug in SQLTABLE regarding references representation.
It is showing the ID or sometines None for references. there is a workaround for that, using the represent direct on your model, try that. db.define_table('tablename', Field('fieldname',db.othertable,represent=lambda f:f.othertable.fieldname) ) I am trying to solve that and send a patch for SQLTABLE, but I couldn't find a solution yet. I guess this was introduced in this changeset http://code.google.com/p/web2py/source/detail?r=71968b09fb51c3c0a612ec4f1421a84955887f96 <http://code.google.com/p/web2py/source/detail?r=71968b09fb51c3c0a612ec4f1421a84955887f96>Anyone else having problems with reference fields and SQLTABLE? --- Bruno Rocha http://about.me/rochacbruno/bio